The World's Most Weird and Wonderful

The world is a weird place. It's not something we always
appreciate as we go about our day-to-day lives, but every so often
you learn something about this planet of ours, suspended in a
potentially infinite cosmos, that makes you stop and pause for
thought. It's humbling to be reminded how small we are in the grand
scale of things once in a while, so for a quick dose of
perspective, here are our top five strange and wonderful natural
phenomena that occur around the globe.

1) The midnight sun. It might not seem possible
as our nights get darker and darker ever earlier, but at the height
of summer north of the Arctic Circle, the sun never sets. And it's
not just around the summer solstice either, in Norway's sparsely
populated Svalbard region, there is no sunset at any time between
mid-April and early August. Conversely however (and unfortunately
all to believably this time of year), as winter approaches
residents are cast into the darkness of polar nights - where the
sun stays resolutely below the horizon, giving out no more than a
twilight glow around midday.

2) The Saltstraumen. Just ten miles off land,
where the Saltenfjorden and Skjerstad Fjord converge, broods one of
the most powerful tidal currents in the world. Known as the
Saltstraumen maelstrom, this rip-roaringly formidable display sees
over four hundred million cubic metres of water power its way
through a narrow channel, at speeds reaching twenty-five miles per
hour. It may sound intimidating, but that doesn't stop dare-devil
sightseers. Boarding a boat in nearby Bodø, you can actually get up
close and personal with this tumult of swirling sea water yourself,
and fisherman brave getting even closer for a chance to catch some
of the specialty coalfish that can be found in the vortex itself.
If you head further north into the Lofoten archipelago, you can
even find another of these phenomena, one with a fearsome
reputation for sinking Captain Nemo's Nautilus. That isn't its only
literary claim to fame either; Edgar Allan Poe was said to have
been inspired to write 'A Decent into the Maelström' after seeing
its effects for himself.

3) Sailing Stones. In the heat of the desert
sun, where few people will catch them in the act, are the sailing
stones of Death Valley, Nevada. A mystery to modern scientists
until recent years, the sailing stones were so named as they
appeared to drag themselves completely independently across the
dried-out lake bed of Racetrack Playa, leaving tell-tail trails of
churned-up mud behind them. Once blamed on everything from space
aliens to the tug of the earth's magnetic field, it's now believed
that winter weather in the empty gorge (which can bring about
freezing conditions) are the less cryptic answer. Enough ice would
form underneath the stones to allow the wind to gently blow them
along the desolate surface - mystery solved!

4) Fire tornados. They might look like
something straight out of a film about the end of days, but these
apocalyptic manifestations are recognisable in areas of Australia
and California as fire tornados (also known as fire devils, fire
twisters and firenados). Whipped into existence by an unfortunate
combination of wild fires and strong winds whose updrafts literally
feed off the surrounding flames, they work themselves into a
dangerous frenzy that can reach blistering temperatures of more
than 1,000 degrees centigrade, and heights of up to 50 metres. They
are capable of ripping trees from their roots and destroying large
areas of scrubland, as well as any homes unlucky enough to find
themselves in their path. The very worst of its kind formed in
Japan after a devastating earthquake, it was the size of a city and
38,000 people lost their lives to its fearsome capabilities.

5) Sea of stars. Tucked away in the Indian
Ocean is the tiny island of Vaadhoo, part of the Raa Atoll in the
Maldives. A perfect combination of blue skies, azure seas and crisp
white beaches during the day, by night things grow even more
beautiful as the gentle waves that lap the shore bring with them a
shimmering surprise. Microorganisms chemically react with the
oxygen in the air around them, causing them to go through a process
called, bioluminescence. In layman terms, they glow in the dark.
Looking almost like a mirror image of the clear, star-filled skies
high above, it's a magical scene to behold - all the more so
because appearances cannot be predicted and seem to be beguilingly
sporadic.

So, while living in Britain we may have to put up with some
dank, wet and miserable weather - we can count our lucky stars (not
a sea of them though, unfortunately) that more often than not, we
don't have to deal with anything more extreme. Luckily for the
adventurous out there however, many of these phenomena are no more
than a plane ride away…you have been warned!